IRobot Turns Packbot Into Roving Mapmaker

Military robotics powerhouse iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]) said yesterday that it’s ready to sell a version of its Packbot robot equipped with laser detectors that will help soldiers build real-time maps of hazardous terrain or buildings without sending personnel into danger. “Situational awareness” is one of the big buzz phrases in modern robotics. If it is … Continue reading “IRobot Turns Packbot Into Roving Mapmaker”

Biogen Idec Announces It Will Remain Independent—Says No “Definitive Offers” Received, Not Even From Icahn. Shares Plummet

UPDATED: 12/12/07, 4:50 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.—Was it just five or six hours ago that I advised readers not to pay too much attention to the gathering storm of rumors that Biogen Idec was about to be sold? Did I predict that nothing would happen with efforts to sell the company before the New Year? … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Announces It Will Remain Independent—Says No “Definitive Offers” Received, Not Even From Icahn. Shares Plummet”

Top Honors for 2K Boston, Harmonix at Spike TV Video Game Awards

Boston-area video game developers cleaned up at the Spike TV Video Game Awards in Las Vegas last weekend. Bioshock, the Xbox 360 first-person shooter game that we lauded back in August, garnered the Game of the Year award for local studio 2K Boston. And the Cambridge-based MTV subsidiary Harmonix Music Systems won Studio of the … Continue reading “Top Honors for 2K Boston, Harmonix at Spike TV Video Game Awards”

Biogen Idec Shares Rising—But Is No News Really News?

Even as the stock market took a big swoon yesterday in the wake of a less-than-hoped-for Fed rate cut, Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) shareholders didn’t seem to be feeling the pain. The stock rose as high as $77.85 yesterday before closing at $75.39. That was still up $1.42 on a day when the Dow tanked … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Shares Rising—But Is No News Really News?”

PeerApp, Pando Collaborate to make Peer-to-Peer Palatable to ISPs

When it comes to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems such as BitTorrent and Gnutella, the technology world has a like-hate-love relationship. Content owners such as TV networks tentatively like them, since they make it cheaper to get high-bandwidth content like video out to viewers over the Internet. Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast hate them, … Continue reading “PeerApp, Pando Collaborate to make Peer-to-Peer Palatable to ISPs”

Look Out, EveryScape—Google Gives Users a Better Look Around Boston

I can tell you right now that Wade is not going to like this post. As many of you know, he’s a huge fan of both maps and 3-D modeling technology, and anything that puts the two together…well, forget about it. Which is why, I’m guessing, he is so intrigued by EveryScape, a Waltham, MA-based … Continue reading “Look Out, EveryScape—Google Gives Users a Better Look Around Boston”

Millennium Presents Positive Data for Velcade

At a conference yesterday, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MLNM]]) presented positive clinical data that could boost the Cambridge, MA-based company’s chances of gaining a broadened approval for cancer-drug Velcade, Millennium’s only marketed product. Velcade’s rival, Celgene’s Revlimid, also did well, but analysts seemed more impressed with Velcade. Shares of Millennium rose yesterday to a high of … Continue reading “Millennium Presents Positive Data for Velcade”

Peddle Power: MIT Cyclocross Team Promotes Alternative Energy, Low-Power Computing

As the red, white, and black uniforms of the MIT Cycling Team bobbed up and down before me early this afternoon, I couldn’t help thinking: human abacus. Okay, the logic might be twisted (most folks here at Xconomy figure that’s a given when I start writing), but there is method to my madness. The cyclists, … Continue reading “Peddle Power: MIT Cyclocross Team Promotes Alternative Energy, Low-Power Computing”

Inverness Strikes Again

Waltham, MA-based Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: [[ticker:IMA]]) has agreed to pay $170 million in stock for BBI Holdings, a UK company that specializes in lateral-flow tests, such as those used for fertility monitoring or pregnancy tests. Inverness has been on buying spree, which appears likely to continue.

The Akamai Protocol: Firm Rewrites Internet Rules to Speed Up its Network

Cambridge-based networking company Akamai has placed more than 28,000 of its content distribution servers around the world, creating a kind of meta-Internet atop the real Internet. And now, to make applications work across that network faster, the company is replacing the standard communications protocols that make the Internet work—namely, the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) … Continue reading “The Akamai Protocol: Firm Rewrites Internet Rules to Speed Up its Network”

Calling All Tech Bands: It’s Time to Rock and Rule

If there’s one thing we’ve learned since launching Xconomy back in June, it’s that our readers and sources rock—often in a couple of different senses of the word. Which is to say that not only have we been overwhelmed by the technical smarts, business savvy, and plain old neighborliness of the people we’ve met over … Continue reading “Calling All Tech Bands: It’s Time to Rock and Rule”

Flavored Water Tastes Fine To New Highland Consumer Fund

In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs famously recruited Apple CEO John Sculley, then the president of Pepsi, with the question: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life?” I can’t help thinking that if Jobs visited Highland Capital Partners and asked general partner Ted Philip the same question (replacing “sugar” … Continue reading “Flavored Water Tastes Fine To New Highland Consumer Fund”

MERL Looking Haggard: Ramesh Raskar Leaving Mitsubishi For MIT Media Lab; Two Others Also Depart

The surge of major researchers leaving Cambridge’s Mitsubushi Electric Research Laboratory, which we first reported in July, was only the beginning of what’s looking like a steady flow. Today, we have three more departures to report: • Ramesh Raskar, an expert in computational photography who will join the Media Lab in the spring of 2008 … Continue reading “MERL Looking Haggard: Ramesh Raskar Leaving Mitsubishi For MIT Media Lab; Two Others Also Depart”

BBN to Build Translation System for DARPA

BBN Technologies of Cambridge said today that it has won a $5.67 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects agency to develop prototype optical character recognition and translation software for mobile devices and laptop and desktop computers that will turn printed and handwritten foreign-language text documents into English, including hard copy, PDF files, … Continue reading “BBN to Build Translation System for DARPA”

Highland Adds Two New Partners, Loses One

Highland Capital Partners, the Lexington, MA-based venture capital firm, announced on Friday that it has promoted Peter Bell and Richard de Silva to general partner. Based in the firm’s Menlo Park office, de Silva focuses on digital media investments and has been at Highland since 2003. Bell, former CEO of StorageNetworks, joined the firm last … Continue reading “Highland Adds Two New Partners, Loses One”

GTC Drug Gets Orphan Status

Framingham, MA-based GTC Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GTCB]]) announced that its lead drug candidate, ATryn, has received orphan-drug status as a treatment for patients with a rare hereditary clotting disease. The drug—a protein produced it the milk of genetically engineered goats—was fast-tracked by the FDA back in September; GTC plans to complete its filings for approval of … Continue reading “GTC Drug Gets Orphan Status”

Who (and Who Not) to Hire: A Napkin Sketch from Xconomist Bill Aulet

Last week Wade offered some fantastic tips on how to recruit employees in the midst of what’s shaping up to be a major staffing crunch at local information-technology firms. And it got me thinking about something that Xconomist Bill Aulet told me a few weeks ago during a power lunch at Aceituna, over near the … Continue reading “Who (and Who Not) to Hire: A Napkin Sketch from Xconomist Bill Aulet”

Mzinga Knows Harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds Takes Wisdom—and Work

“Crowdsourcing.” It’s often discussed in the business world as if it were a cheap and easy way to get groups of online volunteers to take over once-costly functions such as customer support. But the folks at Mzinga, in Burlington, MA, understand that the story is a bit more complicated. For one thing, creating and managing … Continue reading “Mzinga Knows Harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds Takes Wisdom—and Work”

$16M for Blackwave, Memsic Sets IPO Range, Hologic Prices $1.5B Worth of Notes, and the Rest of Last Week’s Wheeling and Dealing

Last week saw a little blip in the action among companies working on aspects of fixed and mobile media delivery—or is it the beginning of a trend? Oh, and there were some life sciences deals in there as well. This is Boston, after all. —Blackwave, an Acton, MA-based maker of hardware for video streaming, raised … Continue reading “$16M for Blackwave, Memsic Sets IPO Range, Hologic Prices $1.5B Worth of Notes, and the Rest of Last Week’s Wheeling and Dealing”

Seamless: Computational Couture at the Museum of Science

From the museum’s website: “Fashionistas and techies unite at SEAMLESS, a fashion show and celebration showcasing emerging designers from around the globe and functional creations that push the boundaries of wearable technology. The Museum transforms into a catwalk for “computational couture” as models strut groundbreaking clothing to live media performances by video artists sosolimited and … Continue reading “Seamless: Computational Couture at the Museum of Science”

MIT Entrepreneurs Club

All members of the MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley communities are welcome at the weekly Tuesday night meetings of the MIT Entrepreneurs Club. Members and guests give 3-10 minute presentations on science and technology startup ideas and get 10 to 20 minutes of intense feedback. More information here.

Massachusetts Conference for Women

Listen. Learn. Network. The Massachusetts Conference for Women claims the title of “the state’s premier networking and educational experience designed to help women connect and collaborate, and grow personally and professionally.” The one-day conference features keynoters Jack Welch, Suzy Welch, author Anna Quindlen, and CBS anchor and author Rene Syler. It’s not all about business … Continue reading “Massachusetts Conference for Women”

Clean Diesel—One Way to Meet Higher CAFE Standards

The House of Representatives yesterday passed an energy bill that would require automakers to raise the fleet average fuel efficiency for passenger vehicles to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It’s unclear what parts of the bill might ultimately become law, given strong opposition in the Senate and at the White House to other provisions … Continue reading “Clean Diesel—One Way to Meet Higher CAFE Standards”

Harvard Bioscience to Buy Back $10M in Stock

Harvard Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HBIO]]), a Holliston, MA-based maker of instrumentation for life sciences industries, plans to buy back some $10 million of its common stock over the next two years, the company announced yesterday. The stock is up some 6 percent this afternoon, at $4.24.

Polaris Senior Associate and GreenFuel VP Nick Sinai Joining Lehman Brothers Venture Arm in Boston

Nick Sinai, a rising senior associate star at Polaris Venture Partners, will be leaving the firm at the end of the year to become a vice president in the newly created Boston office of Lehman Brothers’ venture capital arm. Sinai, just 31 years old, will also be stepping down from his position as interim vice … Continue reading “Polaris Senior Associate and GreenFuel VP Nick Sinai Joining Lehman Brothers Venture Arm in Boston”

Boost Your Karma: Check Out MarksGuide

Cross Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with Web-networker-par-excellence Joi Ito, add blond hair and blue eyes, and plunk the result down in Boston—and you’d have Mark Doerschlag. The Mark behind the eponymous MarksGuide Boston, Doerschlag is the man to know if you want to get the word out about a local networking event in business, technology, … Continue reading “Boost Your Karma: Check Out MarksGuide”

Haseltine’s DNA Repair Company Steps Out

As I wrote in Wednesday’s post on Aveo’s deal with Eli Lilly, the biomarker business is finally having a growth spurt, at least in oncology. Another intriguing company trying to cash in on this trend is The DNA Repair Company (or DNAR), a Boston-based startup co-founded by Human Genome Sciences’ founder and former CEO Bill … Continue reading “Haseltine’s DNA Repair Company Steps Out”

Of Red Wine, Robotics, and What Folks Would Do As Governor—Xconomy’s Forum Sparks Debate on the Future of Innovation in New England

I don’t know if the cold medicine was getting to me or what, but venture capitalist Michael Greeley was sounding awfully like a socialist for a minute there last night at the Xconomy Forum. Greeley—a general partner at IDG Ventures, president of the New England Venture Capital Association, and an Xconomist—was moderating a spirited discussion … Continue reading “Of Red Wine, Robotics, and What Folks Would Do As Governor—Xconomy’s Forum Sparks Debate on the Future of Innovation in New England”

VMware’s Greene Backs Up Xconomy Readers—Says Customers Aren’t Balking at Premium Price for Company’s Virtualization Products

My, people have strong feelings about VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]). In mid-November, when we last wrote about the virtualization company 90-percent-owned by Hopkinton-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), its stock had dropped from a post-IPO high of $124 down into the $90 range. (Which is where it is again today, after diving as low as $71 on November … Continue reading “VMware’s Greene Backs Up Xconomy Readers—Says Customers Aren’t Balking at Premium Price for Company’s Virtualization Products”

Going Up Against Henri—Genzyme Not For Sale

“I’d hate to go up against Henri.” That was the view of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals CEO Christoph Westphal when asked at Xconomy’s Forum last night about recent speculation that two other Cambridge-based biotech firms, Biogen Idec and Genzyme, might be targets of takeover bids after investor Carl Icahn had taken stakes in both firms. The Henri … Continue reading “Going Up Against Henri—Genzyme Not For Sale”

ZoomInfo Charts New World of Ads Based on “Business Demographics”

In the world of Web advertising, targeted audiences are gold. If you publish a website that attracts the type of people who drink green tea, then click-through rates for green-tea ads are probably going to be higher than average, and companies like Snapple and AriZona Beverages will happily pay you a higher rate. Likewise, if … Continue reading “ZoomInfo Charts New World of Ads Based on “Business Demographics””

$80M Payday for Synta

GlaxoSmithKline has written Lexington, MA-based Synta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTA]]) a check for $80 million. The payment is the first installment under a cancer-drug development agreement that could ultimately be worth $1.1 billion for the Lexington firm.

Riding the Biomarker Wave: Aveo Snags Eli Lilly Deal

Until recently it seemed like the only thing big pharmaceutical companies wanted from the little guys was their drugs—as many of them as the pharmas could get their hands on. Things have changed, however, as yesterday’s deal between Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly demonstrates. Now, there is something else those pharmas desperately want … Continue reading “Riding the Biomarker Wave: Aveo Snags Eli Lilly Deal”

Talent Wars: How Boston-Area IT Companies Are Dealing With A Severe Staffing Crunch

The bad news in a jobs study released last week by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth is that Massachusetts lags every state in the nation save Michigan when it comes to creating new jobs. Manufacturing in the state has been in especially bad shape since the 2001 recession, leading to worries that, as … Continue reading “Talent Wars: How Boston-Area IT Companies Are Dealing With A Severe Staffing Crunch”

$8 Million for Mobile Streaming Video Startup

Buzzwire, based in Boston and Denver, will use an $8 million Series B funding round, announced today, to work with major cellular carriers to deploy its technology for streaming video, audio, and radio to mobile phones. New investor Sequel Partners of Boulder, CO, led the funding round, which also included existing investors Spark Capital and … Continue reading “$8 Million for Mobile Streaming Video Startup”

Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands

Finally, a tech networking event that rocks. Musicians from Boston’s most innovative companies play their geeky hearts out—you pick the winners! Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008. Location: Middle East Restaurant and Night Club, 472-480 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA. Time: Doors open at 7:00 pm, music starts at 7:30 sharp. Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at … Continue reading “Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands”

Bruker Buys Bruker for Almost $1B

Shares of Bruker BioSciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BRKR]]), a Billerica, MA-based scientific instruments maker, are climbing on yesterday’s announcement that the firm will acquire the Bruker BioSpin Group, which develops magnetic resonance core technology, for $914 million in cash and stock. The resulting company, which will be called Bruker Corporation, is projected to have more than 3,700 … Continue reading “Bruker Buys Bruker for Almost $1B”

Group Led by Harvard’s George Church Will Bid for Genomics X Prize

A local group has finally thrown its hat into the ring for the $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics, and it’s a biggie: the newly minted Personal Genome X-Team (PGx), led by genomics pioneer George Church. Church, a Harvard Medical School professor of genetics and co-founder of companies including Cambridge, MA’s Codon Devices and … Continue reading “Group Led by Harvard’s George Church Will Bid for Genomics X Prize”

Nextcat Includes Game Developers

Nextcat, the Quincy, MA-based professional social networking site for musicians, filmmakers, writers, artists, and models that we profiled back in August, has added a section for video game developers. It’s good timing, as a report from the Entertainment Software Association last week revealed that Massachusetts is the nation’s fifth-leading center of videogame development, with close … Continue reading “Nextcat Includes Game Developers”

In-Q-Tel Opens Boston Office, Plans to In-q-bate New Technology for the Intelligence Community

If you’re a budding Boston entrepreneur working on a technology such as deeper data mining, longer-lasting batteries, or faster microfluidic DNA screening, you might get a surprise phone call one day soon from the U.S. intelligence community—or at least, from its strategic investing arm. That’s because In-Q-Tel, an Arlington, VA-based private, non-profit group that funds … Continue reading “In-Q-Tel Opens Boston Office, Plans to In-q-bate New Technology for the Intelligence Community”

$35M for Merrimack

A regulatory filing indicates that Cambridge, MA-based Merrimack Pharmaceuticals has raised $35 million of an $80 Series F financing round, according to PE Week Wire. No investors were named in the filing, but Merrimack’s $65 million Series E round, closed in April of 2006, included Jennison Associates, Modal Capital, Sorenson Development, WT Investment Advisors Fund, … Continue reading “$35M for Merrimack”